PROMOTED!!
Plus Medals at Eastern Region
The Spartans are celebrating. A huge turnout of sixty runners for the last counting Mid Week Road Race League race of the season helped ensure that Fairlands Valley won Division Two and will be promoted to the top division for 2014.
In the race, which was a five mile event at Welwyn Garden City on Wednesday, Fairlands Valley Spartans beat Orion Harriers (Chingford) by 325 to 383 and took 15 championship points. Bishops Stortford were a distant third on 809.
Over the series won with 60 points (score 1,148) compared with Orion’s 50 (2,409) and Bishop Strortford’s 50 (2,590). There were eight clubs in the division.
After a tight battle RICHARD BATE was second of the 221 finishers in 27 minutes 17 seconds. Spartan SIMON JACKSON was third in 27:44. There were also top twenty positions for ANDREW PATTERSON, seventh in 28:40; SIMON BELL, 18th in 30:13 and ANDREW GARDINER 20th in 30:38.
JO LAING won the women’s race in 32 minutes 22 seconds with NATALIE BARNARD third in 32:42 and LISA BURGESS sixth in 34:30. There were also top twenty places for JENNIFER ROBERTSON, seventh in 34:36; TRACY PEZ 15th in 36:40; KATY JINKS, 16th in 36:42; RHIANNON GRIFFIN, 17th in 36:45; JULIE SIMMONS won the female veteran (55 plus) category and was 18th in 37:17; and MARIE COLUCCI, 19th in 37:19.
BERNIE BARNABY was third male veteran (50 plus in 32:06) and PHIL GALE fourth in 32:30.
Times for the 41 Spartan men:
Race First Name Last Name Time Comments
2 RICHARD BATE 27:17 2nd & 2nd senior
3 SIMON JACKSON 27:44 3rd and 3rd senior
7 ANDREW PATTERSON 28:40
18 SIMON BELL 30:13
20 ANDREW GARDINER 30:38
23 LIAM HERBERT 30:49
26 DANNY HUKIN 31:22
32 TODD GRAY 31:49
33 DEAN CARPENTER 31:49
36 KERRY FLAIN 32:05
37 BERNIE BARNABY 32:06 3rd MV50
41 PHIL GALE 32:30 4th MV50
49 JAVIER SANCHEZ 33:12
52 TONY BRADFORD 33:24
60 VISHAL SHAH 34:02
64 MARK BEASLEY 34:34
65 RICHARD HAZELDENE 34:35
67 PETE SMITH 34:38
68 DANIEL BATES 34:42
78 STEVE MAYFIELD 35:29
81 MIKE KING 35:35
86 MARK GOODWIN 36:04
92 JAMES KILROY 36:09
121 ROBERT EVANS 37:29
124 ANDY JAY 37:39
126 SELVAN NAICKER 37:40
127 ANDREW JORDAN 37:50
129 SEAN THOMPSON 37:54
131 MARK CHEADLE 38:05
138 JIM BROWN 38:31
140 GARY CRETTON 38:36
144 JAMES SEALS 38:48
169 MARK GLADING 40:52
177 STEVE PIKE 41:37
181 DYFED THOMPSON-SMITH 42:07
184 NICK WITCOMBE 42:33
185 BARRY KING 42:33
190 ADAM DAVIN 43:18
195 DAVID BOWKER 43:53
214 PAUL HOLGATE 46:37
219 GOPOLAN NAIDOO 48:25
Times for the 19 Spartan women:
Race Female Pos First Name Last Name Time Comments
38 1 JO LAING 32:22 Winner and 1st FV35
45 3 NATALIE BARNARD 32:42 3rd and 2nd senior
63 6 LISA BURGESS 34:30
66 7 JENNIFER ROBERTSON 34:36
100 15 TRACY PEZ 36:40
101 16 KATY JINKS 36:42
104 17 RHIANNON GRIFFIN 36:45
113 18 JULIE SIMMONS 37:17 1st FV 55
115 19 MARIE COLUCCI 37:19
141 26 LISA GRAY 38:37
153 33 CLARE MOORE 39:23
158 35 ALISON HOPWOOD 40:09
170 42 LISA LIVERSIDGE 40:59
179 49 RUTH BRADFORD 41:51
186 52 SARAH PIKE 42:35
187 53 GEORGIE HOPWOOD 42:44
196 57 LORRAINE WYATT 44:05
203 62 STEPHANIE MAYFIELD 44:56
211 68 ANDREA WESTCOTT 46:20
The celebration “mob match” will be in Trent Park on Wednesday 17th July.
Regional Medals for Spartans
Nine Spartans travelled to Sandy in Bedfordshire to compete in the Eastern Veterans Athletics Club Track and Field Championships. The competition is open to all athletes belonging to EVAC.
Steve Mayfield who did the multi event competition carried on his good form from last weekend by winning the gold medal in the men’s 45 age group Javelin and silvers in both the Pole Vault and 400 Metres
Monica Brown won golds in the100 Metres which was also a personal best, Long Jump and High Jump and won a silver in the Shot Putt
John Tyrrell did a Personal Best in the male 75 year age group of 20.30 metres to win silver.
John also won a silver in the shot putt missing his personal best by only a few centimetres.
John Harris also improved both his 800 Metres in 2 minutes 21 seconds and 1500 metres in 4 minutes 57 seconds in the male 50 age group.
Sharon Crowley won in the W50 2000 Metre Walk and 400 Metres. Her 400 metre time was 94.5 seconds.
Peta Wilson won the women’s 800 and 1500 metres, a tough double to do in an afternoon which resulted in personal bests too.
Mark Cheadle competed in his first veteran championships and knocked nearly thirty seconds off his 1500 Metres time in the male 35 years category.
Tessa Stephenson did a season’s best in the women’s 50 year 100 metres with 15.8 seconds and came third in the shot putt in 8 metres 48 centimetres just 5 centimetres behind second place.
Tim Mullin Saunders competed in the Male 60 years Hammer Throw and was third with a throw of 33.50. He also entered the Shot Putt narrowly missing a bronze medal with a 9 metres 12 centimetre putt. In the Discus Tim did 26.68 finishing in 6th place.
Event Cat Name Pos Time / Distance Comments
100 Metres W45 Monica Brown 1st 13.7 PB
W50 Tessa Stephenson 5th 15.8 SB
400 Metres M45 Steve Mayfield 2nd 60.5 PB & Club Record
W50 Sharon Crowley 1st 94.5 PB
800 Metres M50 John Harris 3rd 2 m 21.2 PB
W40 Peta Wilson 1st 3 minutes 03 seconds PB
1500 Metres M35 Mark Cheadle 3rd 5m 45.2 PB
M50 John Harris 2nd 4m 57.6 PB
W40 Peta Wilson 1st 6m 34.8 PB
2000M Walk W50 Sharon Crowley 1st 15m20.7
Javelin M45 Steve Mayfield 1st 28m42
Discus M75 John Tyrrell 2nd 20m 30 PB
Shot Putt M60 Tim Saunders-Mullins 4th 9m 12
M75 John Tyrrell 2nd 7m 86
W45 Monica Brown 1st 6m63
W50 Tessa Stephenson 3rd 8m48
Hammer M60 Tim Saunders-Mullins 3rd 33m 50
Pole Vault M45 Steve Mayfield 2nd 2m00
Long Jump W45 Monica Brown 1st 4m44
High Jump W45 Monica Brown 1st 1m30
Gletscher Marathon
ROGER BIGGS travelled to the lovely town of Imst in the Austrian Tyrol for surely one of the most beautiful marathon courses in the world!
The Gletscher Marathon is a point to point race starting at Manderfen, 1700 metres above sea level, just below the Gletscher Glacier. The course meandered its way down the narrow valley with snow clad mountains on either side to cross the River Inn, before climbing up to the finish at 700 metres in Imst.
While the 1000 metre net drop and the near perfect running weather, made it possible to record good times, there were still 4 lung busting climbs to take their toll.
Roger’s time of 3 hours 48 minutes 25 seconds was his fastest marathon time of 2013; it was a “Good For Age” qualifying time for the 2014 London Marathon and he won the Vet65 category (a photo of the presentation is available).
Park Run
Three Spartans made the short trip to St Albans for the weekly and free 5k Park run event. Despite conditions being not ideal with wind and rain two ran new personal bests, Vish Shah finished in 26th place in a new PB of 20:24, Andy Jay was 43rd in a PB of 21:40 and Nick Whitcombe was 97th in 25:27. There were 175 runners.
100K for Paul
PAUL MARSHALL completed the 100 kilometres Trans Pennine Challenge between Didsbury and Sheffield recently. He was raising money for GOSH and managed to finish in 15 hours and 49 minutes. As expected it was hilly and the weather was awful, but it was nice to finish at the Don Valley Stadium which may not be there next year.
Last Friday of the Month
There was light rain, mild, light breeze for the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5K race in Hyde Park which was on the slower reserve course used when there are special events in the park.
After a steady start for the first kilometre (5 minutes) following Wednesday evening’s race Jim Brown accelerated a little to finish 149th in 23 minutes 12 seconds.
Coming Events
Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:
• County 10K track championships at Sandy on Thursday 11th July
• Mob Match 9K in Trent Park, North London on Wednesday 17th July
• Fairlands Valley Challenge on Sunday 21st July
• Relays in the Park in Stevenage on Thursday 25th July
• Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday 5th September
• Club Five Mile Team Champs on Tuesday 10th September
• Herts Senior 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 24th September
• County 10K Championships in Letchworth on Sunday 6th October
• Herts Veterans 5K Championships in WGC on Tuesday 8th October
• County 10 Mile Championships for veterans on Sunday 27th October
• Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 3rd November
• County Ten Miles Championship in Buntingford on 30th December 2013
Join The Spartans
Live in or near Stevenage? Like running? Fairlands Valley Spartans is your local running club and is on the up! The club was voted the UK’s Best Running Club in 2010. It now has about 400 members and encourages participation by all. The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons.
The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Go along to the new sports centre at Marriotts School – a Sports College, Brittain Way, Stevenage (SG2 8UT) at 7p.m. Up to five running groups go out on training nights – there will be one to suit you!
The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.
Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9.30a.m. sharp. Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m. There are events to enter every Sunday. Newcomers are very welcome – those who have not done very much running yet might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.
Try a few sessions before joining. Membership is only ÂŁ35 per year, ÂŁ25 without UKA membership. Concessions are available. Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk Please ask if you would like a paper copy.
If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (0793 968 7509 or 01438 354505), Vivienne Honey 07702 846304 or visit their website www.fvspartans.org.uk
E N D S
More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 0793 968 7509 / 01438 354505 or Vivienne Honey (Secretary) 07702 846304
www.fvspartans.org.uk